Associate Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin

Career Summary

Biography

Over the past 15 years, I have worked in a clinical research capacity with people experiencing psychotic disorders, depression, personality disorders, and alcohol/other drug use problems, with specific experience in the use of cognitive behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing and mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques among people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol/other drug problems. My main research activity has been on the development and clinical trial of computer- and internet-delivered treatments for people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol/other drug use problems. I have led several large scale randomized controlled clinical trials of face-to-face, phone-based and computerized psychological treatments, and translated these treatments into clinical practice. I have also developed tobacco-focused psychological treatments incorporating a multiple behavior change focus, and in clinical treatment trials evaluating the efficacy of such treatments among people with mental health problems. My vision is to bring high quality, evidence based treatment for multiple health problems to the point-of-care for people experiencing mental health and addictive disorders to ensure that the right person receives the right intervention at the right time.

The broad goal of my research program is to develop high quality, evidence-based care that is accessible and acceptable to people with mental and physical health comorbidities by:

Developing and testing eHealth treatments to prevent or reduce harm in mental disorders;

Participating with services, consumers, and industry to inform translation of comorbidity treatments;

Conducting research to determine how best to personalise eHealth treatment provision.

Research ExpertiseOver the course of my research career, I have (i) conceived and completed 5 clinical large-scale RCTs and >20 smaller clinical studies in comorbidity treatment; (ii) initiated >30 meaningful national and international collaborations with academics and industry partners to facilitate translation of my evidence-based treatments outside of my research trials; (iii) created the first (and only) evidence-based eHealth treatment for depression and comorbid alcohol/cannabis/amphetamine use problems, which has been licensed for use by Magellan Health in the USA, seeded the development and trial of a further 4 multimedia treatment programs in comorbidity, and is currently the subject of 1 international NIDA-pilot trial (with application for the full trial to follow) and projects with NSW Health and the Mining Industry.

Leadership Roles In 2016, I became Co-Director of the Mental Health Hub of the University of Newcastle's Priority Research Centre in Brain and Mental Health (in partnership with Professor Sally Chan).

I am the current President of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions; the peak international body representing research in technology in health and related disciplines.

I lead the Translation Stream of the NHMRC CRE in Mental Health and Substance Use (CREMS, http://www.comorbidity.edu.au), with a staff of >20 academics and researchers. I am also an invited member of the Senior Leadership Advisory Group within CREMS, who have developed and direct the strategic vision of the Centre, its staff over >40 researchers across 7 Universities, and its affiliates (the largest international concentration of experts in comorbidity).

My role as secretary for the Society for Mental Health Research (http://www.smhr.org.au) enables me to work alongside leaders in mental health research in Australia (Prof McGorry AO, current president), and through our work with politicians and key stakeholder groups, to lobby for increased recognition and funding for mental health research into the future. Our partnership in 2014-15 with the ABC to run the ‘Mental As…’ campaign (with which I was heavily involved) is testament to this success, and has resulted in close to $2 million being channeled to support early career mental health researchers in Australia.

I have recently been appointed as Chair of the Research Review Committee for Oygen/Human Ethics Advisory Group for the Centre for Youth Mental Health (UniMelb). This role enables me to ensure the quality of mental health research coming out of the national Centre, to facilitate collaborations between researchers within the Centres, and to be a conduit to facilitate the clinical-research interface.

These roles enable me to have significant intellectual input into the direction of the national and international research agenda in mental health and addiction research generally, and comorbidity specifically.

Collaborators

News

University of Newcastle (UON) researchers from the Centre for Resources Health and Safety (CRHS) have been successful in receiving a grant from the Defence Health Foundation to the value of $123,068 over two years.

Associate Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin

Position

Associate ProfessorSMPH / PRCBMH / UoNSchool of Medicine and Public HealthFaculty of Health and Medicine